Urōzgān (Pashto: اروزګان، روزګان‎; Persian: اروزگان‎), also spelled as Uruzgan, Oruzgan, Orozgan, or Rozgan, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Urozgan is in the center of the country, although the area is culturally and tribally linked to Kandahar Province in the south. The population is 333,500, and the province is mostly a tribal society.[1]Tarinkot serves as the capital of the province.

In 2004, the new Daykundi province was carved out of an area in the north, leaving Urozgan with a majority Pashtun population and Daykundi with a majority of Hazaras (see map in infobox for the provincial boundaries that resulted). In 2006, however, Gizab District was taken back from Daykundi and re-annexed to Urozgan, becoming the province's sixth district.[citation needed]

Contents

Urozgan province is located in the southern Afghanistan, bordering Zabul and Kandahar to the south, Helmand to the southwest, Daykundi to the north, and Ghazni Province to the east. Urozgan covers an area of 12,640 km2 (1,264,000 ha). Much of the province is mountainous or semi-mountainous terrain, while the rest of the area is made up of flat land.[2]

In 1709, the Hotak dynasty rose to power in Kandahar and defeated the Safavids. Then, he took control of entire southern Afghanistan while most of the DurraniPashtuns were settled in the Herat area at the time. In 1747, one of Nader Shah's commanders, Ahmad Shah Durrani, became leader of the Afghans and the region of Urozgan was one of the first to become part of his new Durrani Empire, which became to what is now the modern state of Afghanistan.

During the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, Urozgan witnessed fighting between pro-Soviet forces and the Mujahideen. One of the most prominent local Mujahideen leaders was Jan Mohammad Khan. In late 1994, Urozgan was captured by the Taliban. They were toppled by US-led forces in late 2001. Hamid Karzai and his followers arrived to Urozgan between October and November 2001 to take over control of the area.

In June 2002 a wedding party in Urozgan was mistakenly bombed by the U.S. Air Force, which resulted in the death of 30 civilians.[3] In the wake of the fall of the Taliban — from January 2002 through March 2006 — the province was governed by Jan Mohammad Khan, a warlord ally of Afghan President Karzai, and a member of the same Popalzai Pashtun tribe. In March 2006 Karzai appointed Maulavi Abdul Hakim Munib, a former Taliban official who had reconciled with the Government of Afghanistan, to replace Jan Mohammad Khan.

In the summer of 2006 insurgents in Urozgan were targeted by a NATO-Afghan military offensive called Operation Mountain Thrust. In September 2007 President Karzai removed Munib, who had become increasingly ineffective.

Soldiers from Australia's Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) in December 2009.

Because of security concerns and the Taliban insurgency, only one international aid agency (GIZ) has a permanent presence in Urozgan. NATO's ISAF operates a PRT in Tarinkot. The 1,400 Dutch and 1,090 Australian troops in the area secured only the largest population centres in Urozgan (Dihrawud, Chora, and Tarinkot towns) under the Dutch "inkspot policy". However, the force's area of responsibility included the entire province. Gizab district, Urozgan's most dangerous, had no ISAF presence before. In August 2010, the 1,950 Dutch forces withdrew their forces from Urozgan province, after a political disagreement in the Dutch parliament, leaving the PRT to the US and Australia to continue the mission.

U.S. Army soldier watching Afghans pass during a logistics inspection in Tarinkot.

Urozgan's opium poppy crop reached record levels in 2006 and 2007, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), as no significant eradication efforts were carried out by the Afghan administration or Dutch forces.

From 15 to 19 June 2007 Dutch, American, Australian and Afghan soldiers defended the town of Chora against an assault by Taliban combatants. Reports in the Dutch, Australian [4] and US press [5][6][7] indicated that the battle was one of the largest Taliban offensives of the year. The fighting resulted in the deaths of a Dutch soldier,1 Australian soldier, 1 American soldier, 16 Afghan policemen, an unknown number of civilians and a large number of Taliban.

In September 2008 Rozi Khan, the leader of Urozgan's Pashtun Barakzai tribe, and a longtime rival of Popalzai leader Jan Mohammed Khan, was killed in a firefight in Chora District.

Gizab District was temporarily cleared of the Taliban by ISAF forces in late April 2010 and attributed to help from the uprising of the townspeople.[8][9]

The percentage of households with clean drinking water increased from 8% in 2005 to 27% in 2011.[12] The percentage of births attended to by a skilled birth attendant increased from 6% in 2005 to 14% in 2011.[12]

A U.S. soldier socializing with local children in the Darafshan Valley in 2012.

Districts of Urozgan province

The population of Urozgan is reported to be around 333,500.[1] The province has an estimated 45,000 households, each with about six members on average. A large portion of Urozgan's settled population belong to ethnic Pashtuns who make 96% of population with tribes such as Tareen, Kakar,Popalzai, Achakzai, Nurzai, Barakzai, Alikozai, and other Durrani sub-tribes.[13] The second ethnic group is the Hazara which is mainly found in Tarinkot.[13] There is also a population of Kuchis (nomads), whose numbers vary with the seasons.[13]